Ethopian Protest Rally, DC

WASHINGTON DC – Ethiopians in Washington DC held a rally to protest the widespread human rights violation against innocent civilians and systematic repression of ethnic Somalis that is taking place in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.

As reported by the international media and the recent extensive report made public by Human Rights Watch, in areas inhabited by Ogaden people in eastern Ethiopia, the TPLF/EPRDF regime security forces have raped and sexually assaulted numerous women; displaced entire rural communities and destroyed dozens of rural villages; forced residents to flee to the neighboring countries; summarily executed thousands of of civilians; arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of people; intentionally restricted the delivery of humanitarian assistance and access to food and medical supplies in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. Similarly, in the southern and western parts of Ethiopia that are inhabited mostly by Oromo communities, tens of thousands have been detained, tortured or otherwise mistreated.

The protesters said the TPLF-EPRDF regime killed tens of thousands, forced millions to be displaced or to leave their country, detained and tortured hundreds of thousands and asked the US government to take leadership and stop the violence, the killing, the torture of Ethiopians. They also asked a new, independent commission to investigate the human rights situation in every province of Ethiopia and the US, the UN and the European Union to take the human rights situation in Ethiopia seriously and to bring perpetrators of the crimes to justice.

At the end of the rally, the organizers handed to Mr. John Wysham, head of Ethiopia Desk at the State Department, a letter addressed to Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State.

The letter urges the US government to hold the Meles Zenawi regime accountable for its widespread and gross violation of human rights against thousands of innocent civilians in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia as in other places of Ethiopia.

It also urges the US to send a fact finding mission to the region in order to conduct an investigation of the wide spread and systematic human rights violations by the security forces of the Meles regime, identify those who are directly involved, and ensure that they receive no assistance or training from the United States, as required under the “Leahy law”.